Falvey Memorial Library announces a new lecture in the Alfred F. Mannella and Rose T. Lauria-Mannella Distinguished Speakers Series. This year’s lecture, on Jewish-Italian author and Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi, will be given by Nicholas Patruno, Ph.D.

Dr. Patruno is a professor emeritus in the department of Italian at Bryn Mawr College. In 1995, he published a book on the author entitled Understanding Primo Levi. Dr. Patruno comments, “Primo Levi, Auschwitz survivor and a major Italian writer, is one of the most eloquent voices to have spoken on the Holocaust. Starting with his testimony as witnessed in the concentration camp, Levi has gone on to become one of the most important and prolific literary figures of our time.”

Levi is best known for his book If This is a Man, an account of the year he spent in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. He won the Strega Prize, the most prestigious Italian literary prize, in 1979.

The generosity of Villanova University alumnus Alfred S. Mannella has made it possible for Falvey Memorial Library to sponsor a series of annual events. The endowed lecture series is named for his parents, Alfred F. and Rose T. Lauria-Mannella. The talks in the Speakers series are held in the Library at the heart of Villanova University's campus. They are open to the wider community and, as always, are free to everyone, including the general public.